0823 禱告——在「暗中」的爭戰
你禱告的時候，要進你的內屋，關上門，禱告你在暗中的父；你父在暗中察看，必然報答你。 《馬太福音 6:6》
耶穌並沒有說：「夢想你在暗中的父」，而是說：「禱告你在暗中的父。」禱告是一種意志的努力。當我們進入我們隱密處並關上門之後，要做的最困難的事就是禱告。我們似乎無法讓自己的心思進入良好的工作狀態，而我們首先要對抗的就是飄蕩的思維。私禱中最大的爭戰就是要克服我們這個閑散和遊離的思維問題。我們必須學習訓練我們的心思，並專註於刻意、深思熟慮的禱告。
我們必須為禱告找一個特定地方，但一旦我們到那裡，這種飄蕩的心思就會開始煩擾我們，我們開始對自己說：「需要完成這件事，我今天必須完成那件事。」耶穌說「關上門」。在神面前保持暗中的安靜，意味着刻意關上我們的情感之門，並紀念祂。神是在隱密處【暗中】，祂從「暗中」看我們——祂看我們的方式不像其他人，或像我們看我們自己。當我們真正活在「暗中」，我們就不可能懷疑神。我們對祂的確信，勝過對對任何人事物。進入「暗中」，你會發現神一直就在你日常生活的處境中。養成凡事與神處理的習慣。除非你學會完全打開你生命之門，從每個新的一天醒來的那一刻起就讓神進來，否則你一整天都會在錯誤的層面上行事。如果你願意完全打開你生命之門，並「禱告你在暗中的父」，你生活中每件公開的事情都將標註神同在的永久印記。
來自章伯斯的智慧
眼見不等於相信；我們根據我們所信的來解釋我們所看見的。信仰是在你看到神出現之前對神的信任；因此，信仰的本質是它必須經受考驗。《他必榮耀我》
0823 Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “…pray to your Father who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. — He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R